The invention relates to games in which a ball or other object is struck with a bat, racket or the like, such as tennis, baseball, and badminton, and more particularly to the bats or rackets used in these games. These devices are almost uniformly held by a handle projecting from the batting or striking portion, and there is no bat in the prior art which is gripped by the player inside the striking faces and which can be used to strike the ball on any available surface of the bat without producing an unpredictable ball trajectory.